- Deadline for abstracts 3. June 2013 -
The role of knowledge production in and for development has been under increasing scrutiny. The questions such as “does development aid really work?” or “is there value-for the money?” are continuously posed by donors as well as politicians and general public. The pressures for showing results, outcomes and impacts have grown under the trends such as result-based management and evidence-based decision making. These international trends have been under debate in the Nordic countries as well and tackled in different ways in their development policies and strategies. The search for more systematic knowledge production in terms of monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment has been evident in multilateral, bilateral, and non-governmental development co-operation. At the same time, there has been increasing multidisciplinary debate on the methodologies of knowledge production in such endeavors. The debates between experimental, participatory and other methodologies have echoed the disciplinary boundaries and general epistemological underpinnings within the multidisciplinary field of development research. In addition to these methodological debates, an increasing body of ethnographic research and theoretical accounts on the knowledge practices, forms of indigenous knowledge, and the knowledge-power configuration in development has been published. Reflecting on such trends and challenges as identified above, which are relating to cooperation and support for ‘development’ within a framework of global governance, requires again to explore the notion of development and the concept(s) of development studies and research. We remain concerned with the question, what Development Research is able to offer for policy makers and agencies.
The Second Nordic Conference for Development Research provides a platform for researchers, government representatives and NGO-practitioners to address the dilemmas of knowledge production in and for development. The conference aims at dialogue between different methodologies and discussion on their potentialities and limitations in addressing the riddles of intended change which is at the heart of development practice.
The keynote speakers of the conference are Director Ritva Reinikka from the World Bank, and Professor David Mosse from SOAS, University of London. In plenary sessions we accommodate a number of further high standard representatives from different institutions and academic fields, from North and South, addressing the questions related to the ways of knowledge production, being the objects of knowledge production and the knowledge practices within the institutional field of development.
Guidelines for abstract submission by the 3rd June 2013:
The conference invites submissions of abstracts to the working groups. The list and descriptions of the working groups can be found in the conference website: http://www.kehitystutkimus.fi/conference/working-groups.
Submit your abstract to the working group you wish to present your paper. Please, do not submit an abstract to more than one group. The abstract should be written in English with no more than 500 words. The abstract should include a title of the paper, the name and affiliation of the author(s) and their contact emails immediately after the title.
The abstracts should be sent as a word document or .rtf file named as: author_WG_number. (for example: Ulenius_WG_24 ). Submit your abstract directly to the workshop coordinators of the working group and copy it to: nordicdevelopment2013[at]gmail.com .
Following journals have committed to publish a special issue on the selected papers:
Fennia -International Journal of Geography and Forum for Development Studies.
For Finnish participants, journal Hallinnon tutkimus (Administration studies) will invite contributions for their special supplement on evaluation of development aid ( http://hallinnontutkimus.fi/lehti/ ), call for submission will be out at the beginning of June.
Welcome to submit papers!
Important dates:
1st March 2013: First call for papers
3rd June 2013: Deadline for abstract submission
3rd July 2013: Decision on acceptance of the abstracts
July 2013: Registration opens
31st October 2013: Deadline for full papers
14-15th November 2013: the Conference